'39 Steps' next on Rio Theatre stage

The OtherSide Players of Helper will bring "The 39 Steps" a tour-de-force stage adaptation of the classic Hitchock spy movie, to the Rio Theatre in August.

The play is a mix of mystery, a spy novel, and a dash of Monty Python. This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning comedy features more than 150 eccentric characters-played by an ambitious cast of four-an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some old-fashioned romance.

Richard Hannay (Tyson Baker), a man with a boring life, meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the his trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale.

Hannay is helped and hindered by the breathtakingly beautiful Pamela (Marza Warsinske), while the remaining multitude of characters (spies, policemen, innkeepers, salesmen, etc.) are played by just two actors credited as Clown #1 (Justin Ivie) and Clown #2 (Jeff Allen Pierce).

Ivie will be remembered from his outrageous performance in "Greater Tuna" last season and he also directed "The Price" at the Rio. Director Jim Christian, has blended performances with inventive stagecraft.

Alfred Hitchcock, generally referred to as "The Master of Suspense," remains the consummate director of the thrill genre. His films "The Birds," "Dial M for Murder," "Vertigo," "Rear Window," "Psycho," to name a few, are considered classics of world cinema.

His career spanned from the inception of talking pictures in the late '20s to the golden age of stars and studios in the '50s and '60s. His rotund, thick-lipped appearance became as iconic an image as the films themselves, in which he often made a cameo appearance. He was born in East London in 1899, and died in LA in 1980.

"The 39 Steps" is presented by The OtherSide Players, The Old Lyric Repertory Company, and The Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University with support from Helper City, USU/CEU Theatre Department and The Helper Arts Council.

The 39 Steps is recommended for all ages.

The Rio Theatre, is at 210 S. Main Street in Helper.

DATES & TIMES: August 11, 12, 13, 14, 18*, 19, 20, 21;

Thu., Fri. & Sat.at 7:30 p.m.; Sun. Matinees at 2 p.m.

*Thu., Aug. 18, performance (during The Helper Arts and Music Festival) will begin at 8 p.m.